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By Dan SewellAssociated Press • Tuesday January 7, 2014 4:02 AM

CINCINNATI — A high-school football player in Steubenville has been released from a
juvenile-detention center less than a year after he was convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl
after an alcohol-fueled party.

WTOV-TV in Steubenville reported on Sunday that Ma’Lik Richmond had been released. His attorney,
Walter Madison, issued a statement saying that the youth is “braced for the balance of his life”
and that he and his family request privacy.

“While away, Ma’Lik has reflected, learned, matured and grown in many ways,” Madison said in the
statement. “He is a better, stronger person and looks forward to school, life and spending time
with family.”

Richmond was sentenced to one year in March 2013. A judge had convicted him and fellow
Steubenville High School student-athlete Trent Mays of raping the West Virginia girl in August
2012.

Mays also was convicted of using his phone to take a picture of the naked, underage victim. He
was sentenced to two years.

Asked for comment about Richmond’s release, the attorney for the girl, Bob Fitzsimmons, said in
a statement yesterday that it was “disheartening” that the statement made on Richmond’s behalf did
not mention the girl or her family.

“One would expect to see the defendant publicly apologize for all the pain he caused, rather
than make statements about himself,” Fitzsimmons said. “Rape is about victims, not defendants.”

Madison didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Ohio Attorney General Mike
DeWine’s office said he had no comment about Richmond.

In August, Judge Thomas Lipps, brought into Jefferson County from Hamilton County to hear the
juvenile-court case, gave Richmond Ohio’s second-toughest sex-offender classification, the same as
Mays had received. Richmond must register as a sex offender every six months for 20 years. However,
he can request to have the classification removed later, based on rehabilitation history, and his
name won’t be included on publicly accessible websites. Richmond was 16 at the time of the
rape.

The case drew wide attention amid allegations of a cover-up to protect the Steubenville High
football team.

DeWine convened a grand jury last year to look into possible related crimes, resulting in
charges against six people. The Steubenville school district’s former technology director faces a
late February trial on charges that he misled investigators. He and other school officials charged
have pleaded not guilty.